She designed a life she loved…

We all know the saying, “New Year, new me.” I, for one, like the idea of people taking the opportunity to find ways to better themselves and making goals in general. I also like the idea of having a fresh start. But, I don’t like how a lot of people end up quitting after barely starting. I like achieving my goals and the feeling I get afterwards. I’m not saying I achieve every single one, though. I have quit on myself multiple times in different situations. No one’s perfect. I just think that with the right amount of push and desire to get something done, it can happen. We just have to believe that we are enough for it, even though many times it is hard to keep pushing.

So, here’s the part where I tell you my 2019 resolutions. My first one is hard for me to admit because it’s one of those stereotypical New Years resolutions that most people give up on after a few weeks. I don’t want to be that statistic. I want to prove to myself and everyone that I can do it and keep doing it because I enjoy every moment. Here goes:

1. Work Out

New Workout Clothes

I’ve tried this one time and time again. After about two weeks, every time the result was that I gave up out of pure laziness. I’m tired of quitting and now working harder for it than ever before. Since the beginning of December of 2018, George and I have been going to the gym together. Back then, we tried to go every other day, like 3 days a week. We didn’t really monitor our calories or protein intake and didn’t always go everyday that we were supposed to. We were also limited to our workouts because we went to makeshift temporary gym at our apartment complex as they built the new clubhouse. A lot of necessary weights were missing and eventually, some of the machines’ parts broke/stopped working. 4 weeks of that gym and we were sick of it. So, we recently made the decision to sign up at our local public gym called Youfit. We checked it out a few days ago to check if there was everything that we needed, and it had just about all of it, so we signed up. Well, George did. He got the Lime Card, which is the more advanced membership that has access to everything and he can bring in a guest every time, which would be me. I don’t like the timing of it, because now we look like everyone who made this as their resolution and just signed up for a membership because of it. We’ve just been wanting to work out to work out, not because of a resolution. Also, we desperately needed a better gym. I’m making this a resolution now because I want to keep doing it. We also dedicated ourselves to working out 6 days a week, instead of the 3. It is more rigorous, but we have our own goals that we really want. We also started to be more cautious in our daily intake with our macronutrients, which brings me to the next one.

2. Tracking Macros

Bagel w/ Jelly

George and I have starting drinking pre workout before going to the gym and protein shakes afterwards. Personally, I enjoy the tastes of them and don’t mind drinking them, but George isn’t too fond of their tastes. We had the idea to research how much protein we need now that we’ll be working out almost everyday of the week and also how many calories and grams of carbs and fat specifically for our bodies and with this increase in activity. My intake should be about 1700 cals daily on my workout days (about an hour of workouts) and 1400 on my inactive/rest days. It’s a big jump and my body still isn’t used to eat so much now, so I’ve been slowly training it this week as my metabolism increases. I just want to keep doing this to make sure I’m treating my body correctly for the amount of exercise I’ll be doing for hopefully at least the next 3 months. And of course, George is doing it for the same reasons.

3. STUDY!!

This upcoming semester is going to be the toughest one yet, as far as pre-Nursing goes. My best friend Taisha (also a Nursing student) and I have made a promise to each other to push/motivate each other to stay on top of our studies. We built the exact same schedule with the same professors so that we could help each other study. We plan to form study groups and keep it together throughout the whole semester. We are both exited and nervous to continue on this journey together. Now, I really hope that we can motivate each other enough to last the semester and at the same time, working out around our school/study schedule. I even purchased this planner from Walmart, about $8. I shouldn’t have any excuses because I’m still not working, especially not with this semester. And I’m really glad that I have the opportunity to have the time and focus for school now considering that I’ve had no other choice every other semester to work. Which gives me even more of a reason to not have any excuses for studying and focusing on school this semester.

4. Writing & Posting

I created this blog almost a month ago and I’m enjoying writing more. I want to make it a goal to progress my blog and write more frequently to make it fully active. I also want to grow and expand my follower/view count. So far, it has been a slow process. I currently only have 18 followers. My goal is to have at least 100 at least by the end of 2019. I think that is a fair enough amount with a long stretch of time to reach it.

5. Photography

This past Christmas, I treated myself to buying an Instax Mini camera, one that I’ve been wanting for several years now. I finally got to opportunity to spend money on myself and I got something that I’ve always wanted, and I’m so happy. I want to go back into photography. I miss taking shots of ordinary things and turning them into something beautiful. It’s obviously not a fancy DSLR camera, but it’s something. I can start off small and take casual photos with/of my friends with this for awhile until I am able to get a nice DSLR one day, but that’s another dream.

6. Time Management

Last Fall, I actually did a pretty good job of time management with school, studying, and work. But as my hours of work increased, I had less time with everything else. I started making excuses and kept wanting more breaks at home instead of studying as often as I should have. This ultimately left me to stop working and go back to focus on what was more important. The good news is that I know I can do it. I can manage time. I want to make it a goal this year to do better and become smarter at it. I’m going to need a lot more of it with this harder semester coming and with everything else that I want to keep as a goal.

As always, thank you so much for reading, as well as showing interest in my blog! It means a lot to me and I greatly appreciate it. Do you have any similar things that make you happy as well? What things are different? Let me know if there is also anything you’d like to comment on in the comment box!